There are also a small number of special moves introduced in Generation V that deal physical damage. That is, they use the attacking Pokémon's Template:Stat and the defending Pokémon's Defense to calculate damage.

While most physical moves make contact, some do not. For example, Template:M does not make contact despite being a physical move.

From Generation IV onward, every individual move is designated as either physical or special, independent of its type. Most damaging moves of the types that were physical before Generation IV are physical moves, and most {{Dark}} moves are also largely physical. However, there are exceptions, such as Template:M and Template:M.